Research Identifies Mothers Affected By Repeat Child Care Cases

New research has suggested more than 7,000 mothers had been involved in repeated care cases related to the welfare of children in the past seven years.

The study by the University of Brunel and Manchester reported by the BBC found that 7,143 mothers were involved in such cases, which went on to affect 22,790 children in total.

Funded by the Nuffield Foundation, it also revealed 90 per cent of cases saw children taken from parents by local authorities and raised concerns that some mothers were faced with a cycle of pregnancy and subsequent care proceedings.

Experts told the BBC that the study highlighted that family courts needed to change their approach in order to help the mothers affected to change their behaviour, with many cases of this kind of abuse and neglect linked back to drink and drug abuse.

Expert Opinion

These are very important findings which highlight, as experts have stated, how a difficult cycle of problems can be created.

"It is vital that the Government and local authorities properly investigate this data and analyse what lessons can be learned to provide better support to children, as well as to help parents affected by such problems to change their behaviour or take action to ensure they do not face these issues in the future.

"Through our work we see numerous cases every year in which people have suffered serious physical and psychological abuse and the impact this has on can be enormous – with the scars often affecting victims for the rest of their life.

"Anything that can be done to prevent children from experiencing such abuse and neglect can only be a positive thing."

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